Some quick background - my husband is an avid modeler. Then when we planned to move in together, he decided on his own to give it up completely because it is really expensive and takes up a lot of his time and we didn't have enough room in our house for it (he has LOTS of models). Unfortunately, it is a stress reliever for him, so when he decided to give it up he went pretty crazy since he didn't have another outlet to help him cope, and it was extremely unpleasant. It also didn't help that he wasn't really listening to me about helping him relieve stress/anxiety, but he finally started doing it again and the change was almost immediate. Back to being okay and not freaking out about everything.
Now he appears to have decided to give it up again, and I think it's because I told him I was frustrated with how much time he spends on it. I'm not going through him mismanaging his stress again - I repeat that it was extremely unpleasant, and that is an understatement. But I also don't want to insist that he takes it up again, because then I feel controlling. Anyone have any advice? I'm sort of at a loss.
UPDATE: It has been about two weeks since DH gave up his hobby, and for the past four days he has been extremely depressed. He's closed the door to the room where he works on his models and won't look at them, and spends his time at home moping in a housecoat. If he doesn't have to work he doesn't even get dressed. I've been doing my best to cheer him up, but nothing. This is so friggin frustrating because of how important this hobby is to him that it sends him into this state when he stops doing it! And if anyone suggests counseling - he's been, but he doesn't give all the info so the counselor can't see that he's depressed and therefore she can't do anything. He's really good at withholding information. He has to want to get over his depression in order for counseling to work properly.
Damn it, I didn't want to go through this again! And I knew it was coming, and it just makes it so frustrating that despite this I can't do anything about it.